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Academic Data Centre We have data and are willing to help you use it
Academic Data Centre
We have data and are willing to help you use it
Who we are• The ADC provides the
following services:– Access to statistical and
geospatial data– One-on-one consultations for
• Finding statistics and geospatial files
• Using statistics and GIS software (SPSS, SAS, ArcGIS etc.)
• Running statistical methods and spatial analyses
– In-class instruction and online tutorials
Room 1104, Leddy Library (next to Williams' Coffee Pub).
Micro and Macro
• Microdata is about individuals, macrodata is about populations
• Macrodata (“statistics”) is country, state or region level data such as employment rate, GDP, infant mortality, etc.
• Microdata (“raw data”) is data on individual people or units such as households, stocks or firms
Primary and Secondary Data
• Primary data: data you collect yourself, to answer your specific research question
• Secondary data: data collected by some other researcher or institution which you are repurposing to answer your research question– May be used as main focus of research or provide
supplementary information
Geospatial data?• Geospatial data is the
composite of spatial data and attribute data, describing: – Attribute information:
What is it? – Location information:
Where is it? • Macro and
environmental data are good for mapping
Building Type: OfficeHeight: 100 ft. Condition: Good
43°N, 79°W
Where does data come from?• Public: governments, inter-governmental organizations like
the UN and the World Bank– Censuses, Statistics Canada, U.N. Multiple Indicator Surveys,
Spatial, Environment (water samples, emissions, climate)• Non-profit: NGOs, charities, think tanks
– International Food Policy Research Institute, Pew Research Centre• Academic: individual researchers and research
collaborations• Private: media, corporations etc. collect data
– Gallup and other polls are archived; non-news related private data is usually hard to obtain
Public vs. private: it’s the money
• Publically funded institutions have a mandate to spend their money towards certain goals and are held accountable to the public
• Private institutions / businesses have no such mandate and are not accountable beyond what is required by law
• Most publically available data comes from public institutions and the occasional interested and persistent researcher
Statistics on business, industry and economics
• Companies prefer to not give data away, unless required by law (government industry statistics), required by shareholders (company reports), or as a result of interacting with other entities (e.g. stock market)
• Three main sources: – governmental (including IGO) – companies themselves – published business / industry analysis and trade statistics
Government Data
Statistics Canada and others
National Data Collection• Every country (more or less) has a census • Conducted at 5 or 10 year intervals• Since a complete sample, often the only source for
very small area data• Most developed countries also conduct a number
of large scale surveys (economic / employment, health, etc.)
• Countries also collect data for administrative purposes (trade, tax, voting records, immigration etc.)
Canada• National Statistics Agency: Statistics Canada
– Collect or compile statistics on demographics, health, economics, agriculture…
• Turned over collection of some health statistics (hospital based records in particular) to Canadian Institute for Health Information
• Public Health Agency of Canada tracks data on threats to public health, including diseases and injuries. Has the Canadian Incidence Studies of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect
• Individual government departments also may release statistics that they have collected for their own purposes – e.g. C.I.C. tracks immigration statistics
• Provinces don’t have provincial statistical agencies per se, but again departments may compile and release some data
Getting Microdata• Public-Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) released
through Data Liberation Initiative, can be downloaded through ODESI or Equinox .
• Restricted-Use data files can be accessed through our Research Data Centre
• Not all Statistics Canada data is made available though the RDCs (or at all); see lists of available RDC data here and here.
• CIHI – see their Graduate Student Data Access Program
Environmental: Canada
• National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) Databases
• Environment Canada Indicators– Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators – Adjusted and Homogenized Canadian Climate Dat
a– Air Quality and Ozone Levels
United States• Multiple statistical agencies – no centralized collection or
distribution point– Census Bureau– National Center for Health Statistics– Bureau of Labor Statistics– Bureau of Economic Analysis– National Center for Education Statistics
• U.S. public use government data tends to be more detailed than Canadian (has detail that in Canada would be restricted)
• U.S. restricted data is sometimes not allowed to leave the country.
Environmental: U.S.
• Environmental Protection Agency– Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Data
base– National Emissions Inventories
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration– Earth System Research Laboratory– National Geophysical Data Center
Other Countries
• Most other (non-U.S.) countries have national statistical agencies– U.K.: Office for National Statistics– Australia: Bureau of Statistics…
• The official statistical agency is generally the one that does the census
• Some countries have national data archives that will archive government and other data– UK National Data Archive– Australian Data Archive
International data: inter-governmental, nonprofit non-governmental
What?• Intergovernmental Organizations / IGOs
– International, established by treaty or charter e.g. U.N., World Bank, OECD…
• Non-Governmental (NGOs)– Non-profits, may be associated with one of the above, may be
national or international, e.g. Amnesty International, Demographic and Health Surveys, International Food Policy Research Institute
• In less developed countries, these are a primary source for population welfare data that in developed countries is collected by the government
• Also good source for international comparative data
Basic Sources• Population, Economic, infrastructure etc:
– U.N. Data – data.un.org– World Bank’s World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance
(and others)• Health:
– World Health Organization• A primary source for diseases, mortality, risk factors
– DOLPHN: Data Online for Population, Health and Nutrition (USAID)• Draws on W.H.O., DHS, various other survey as well as government sources
• Environment:– U.N. Environmental Data Explorer – Center for International Earth Science Information Network
Environmental Sustainability Index and Population, Landscape, and Climate Estimates (PLACE)
Major Population Welfare survey series
• Living Standards Measurement Surveys (World Bank)– Focus: consumption and income, good demographics– Coverage: 40+ mostly middle-income countries
• Demographic and Health Surveys (organization of the same name)– Focus: health, particularly reproductive– Coverage: 90: low- and middle-income countries, good
demographics• Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (United Nations / Unicef)
– Focus: child health and welfare, reproductive health; limited demogrpahics
– 65+ low and middle income countries
Academic Research Data
Using the data of researchers who had better funding than you
Really big
• World Values Surveys– Survey of the “basic values and beliefs of the publics of
more than 80 societies”• Global Barometer and the Barometers
– Includes Afrobarometer, Arab Barometer, Asian Barometer, and Latinobarometro. Eurobarometer is separate.
• International Social Survey Programme• Comparative Study of Electoral Systems
– Collaborative program of research among election study teams from around the world.
Individual researchers and smaller projects
• ICPSR is the world's largest archive of social science data – more than 8,500 research studies.– International in focus but majority of the data is American.– Individual researchers generally choose whether or not to
deposit their data – and under what restrictions– Features to note: special topic archives, variables database
• Canadian Opinion Research Archive• Harvard’s Murray Archive / Lives Over Time
– Source for some major longitudinal studies
